1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus for recording on a medium.
2. Related Art
A serial ink jet printer is an example of recording apparatus in which a liquid (e.g., ink) is ejected at a medium from a recording head for recording while a carriage on which the recording head is mounted reciprocates in a main scanning direction.
In a serial ink jet printer in which plural ink cartridges are mounted on a carriage, the ink cartridges are generally arranged in the carriage along a direction in which the carriage moves. Some serial ink jet printers reduce their sizes in the width direction by arranging the ink cartridges along a direction crossing the direction in which the carriage moves as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,286,932.
In some ink jet printers, a storage medium is provided in an ink cartridge and information about the ink cartridge (color, a residual amount of ink, etc.) can be kept in the storage medium. The storage medium provided in the ink cartridge is in contact with a contact point provided in a carriage, and a control unit of a printer main body reads information from and writes information in the storage medium provided in the ink cartridge.
The control unit of the printer main body often accesses the storage medium provided in the ink cartridge with the carriage located (stopped) at an end portion in a moving range, more specifically, at a home position. If the ink cartridge is removed when information is being read from or written in the storage medium provided in the ink cartridge, a reading error or a writing error may be caused and, further, damage to a circuit board may be caused.